The
Emission Banking and Trading Programs are designed to provide
maximum flexibility with rules and regulations while still
meeting the environmental goals of Texas. Emission Reduction
Credit (ERC) and Discrete Emission Reduction Credit (DERC)
programs allow companies to claim credits for making voluntary
emission reductions beyond any local, state or federal regulatory
requirements. Reductions that are surplus, real, quantifiable,
enforceable and permanent may be claimed as credits. These
credits may then be used as alternative compliance for other
state requirements or to satisfy Non-attainment New Source
Review Permits. The Emission Banking and Trading Programs
provide an alternative method for companies to meet regulatory
requirements.

The
Natural Gas STAR Program is a voluntary partnership that
encourages companies across the natural gas and oil industries
to adopt cost-effective technologies and practices that
improve operational efficiency and reduce emissions of methane.
Methane, the primary component of natural gas, is a potent
greenhouse gas 21 times stronger than CO2.

In the
U.S. the natural gas system encompasses hundreds of thousands
of wells, hundreds of processing facilities, and over a
million miles of transmission and distribution pipeline.
All industry sectors, including gas production, processing,
transmission, and distribution emit methane to the atmosphere
to varying degrees. Methane emissions are generally process-related,
with normal operations, routine maintenance, and system
upsets being the primary contributors. In 2000, natural
gas systems emitted an estimated 116.4 Tg CO2 equivalent
of methane.

Market
Trading and GHGs: Why trade? Where does it happen? Why an
Agriculturalist?
Bruce A. McCarl, Texas A&M University

The
Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) is the world’s first
and North America’s only voluntary, legally binding
rules-based greenhouse gas emission reduction and trading
system. The mission of the (CCX) is to provide members from
the private and public sectors with cost-effective methods
for reducing their greenhouse gas emissions by building
and operating a market-based emission reduction and trading
program that is flexible, has low transaction costs, is
environmentally rigorous and rewards environmental innovation.

Emissions
of all non-CO2 Greenhouse Gases will be converted to metric
tons CO2 equivalent using the one- hundred- year Global
Warming Potential (GWP) values established by the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change. A CO2 common unit of emissions
quantification has been established based on the GWP of
each non-CO2 gas.

The
Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) has been
conducting helicopter flights around the Houston Ship Channel,
the Texas City industrial area, and the Beaumont/Port Arthur
industrial areas using an infrared camera to identify VOC
emissions. The HAWK infrared video camera can view VOC plumes,
such as gasoline vapors and ethylene, that cannot be seen
by the human eye. The project uses the Hawk infrared camera
to identify and characterize VOC emission sources that have
possibly been unreported or under-reported in the agency’s
emissions inventory. The goal is to develop a corrective
strategy plan to minimize VOC emissions from identified
plumes. Barge
Leaks movieOil
and Gas Field movieGas
Station movie

The
EVRU is a non-mechanical eductor of a jet pump that captures
low-pressure hydrocarbon vapors. It requires high-pressure
motive gas to entrain the low-pressure vapors emanating
from condensate storage tanks. The combined discharge gas
stream exits at an intermediate pressure, which can be used
on site as fuel or re-pressurized with a booster compressor
and injected into a natural gas transmission line for sale.
It is a closed loop system designed to reduce or eliminate
emissions of greenhouse gases (CH4 and CO2) volatile organic
compounds (VOCs), HAPs and other pollutants present in vent
gas. EVRU
EPA ReportEVRU
EPA Statement

Hydraulic
On Line Pressure Swabbing
Mike Wells and Richard Guerra, IPS Field Services

When
a gas well loads up due to an accumulation of produced fluids
in the tubing, or as a result of treatment fluids pumped
down the tubing, swabbing the well is a common solution.
Typically the well would be piped in to a test or production
tank to hold the recovered fluids, and the produced gas
would be vented to the atmosphere during the swabbing operation.

Producers can now use the “On Line Swabbing ™”
method where specialized swabbing units have the capability
to swab the well directly into the pressurized production
system.
The capability to swab the well back in, or to “swab
test”, against the system pressure has resulted in
more effective fluid containment, reduced methane emissions,
valuable well analysis information, and the ability to sell
the produced gas during the swab operation

The
re-completion or work-over procedures on gas wells typically
require the introduction of fluids into the well bore. The
final phase of the completion process is to clean up the
well bore of the remaining fluid and any solids that have
accumulated as a result of the work-over procedure. Traditionally
these fluids and solids were produced during the “flow-back”
stage into temporary open top tanks for containment and
future disposal. The produced natural gas was vented to
the atmosphere.

Producers can now use the “Green Flow-Back ™”
process where additional pressure control equipment, holding
tanks, and more effective liquid and solid separators allow
the now clean gas to be piped to the existing gathering
system and sold. In addition to substantial reduction of
methane emissions and more effective fluid containment the
producer realizes reduced job costs due to the resulting
sale of the produced gas.

The
Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) estimates
that over 2000 tons of hydrocarbon based volatile organic
compounds (VOCs) are emitted annually into the atmosphere
in the Corpus Christi area by the oil and gas industry.
While negatively these fugitive emissions contribute to
ground level ozone pollution, which is harmful to plant
and animal life, positively if these VOCs can be safely
and effectively recovered, they can be recycled into useful
products and generate more dollars for the oil and gas industry.
Current methods of detecting hydrocarbon emissions which
include ground-based and passive airborne systems have many
limitations including safety issues and technology application
over an extended period of time. Recently, ITT Industries
has developed a new technology which appears to hold great
promise to detecting hydrocarbon emissions. The ITT Industry’s
Airborne Natural Gas Emissions LIDAR (ANGEL™ ) system
is an active airborne system that can operate safely and
is not limited in anyway. The HEDR pilot project was designed
by Pollution Prevention Partnership to fine tune and test
the capability of this new system to detect (and perhaps
quantify) low levels of hydrocarbon emissions. A staged
release of gas was conducted at an El Paso Production well
site near Kingsville, Texas while the ANGEL system flew
overhead. Through the application of a combination of geospatial
technologies of Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Global
Positioning System (GPS), and Remote Sensing data was collected,
processed, and analyzed.

Over
the summer of 2005 ITT Industries Space Systems Division
successfully detected, measured, and imaged hydrocarbon
vapors released from a battery of condensate storage tanks
near Kingsville, TX. With R&D support from the United
States Department of Transportation Pipeline and Hazardous
Materials Safety Agency (DOT/PHMSA), ITT Industries is examining
the ability of the ITT Airborne Natural Gas Emission LIDAR
(ANGEL) System to detect and image a wide range of different
hydrocarbons. The objectives of the DOT/PHMSA effort, was
to: 1) develop an understanding of hazardous liquid pipeline
leaks, 2) demonstrate the detection of hazardous liquids
in the real world with the ANGEL System, and 3) use this
information to design an airborne sensor system optimized
for the detection of both natural gas and hazardous liquid
leaks. As part of this study, ITT Industries, in cooperation
with El Paso Production and Texas A&M–Corpus Christi,
completed two separate sets of overflights of a natural
gas condensate storage facility near Kingsville, TX. During
each set of ANGEL System overflights, data was collected
over the El Paso facility with the Vapor Recovery Unit (VRU)
operating and again after the VRU was turned off and the
thief hatches on each of the tanks opened to create large
emissions. Data from each of the overflights was processed
and the results analyzed. The ANGEL System was shown to
be capable of detecting and mapping condensate vapor emissions
flying an altitude of 1,000 feet at speeds of up to 120
mph.

Process
streams which are considered waste or refuse in one application
may, through transformation, constitute resources in others.
Verification of whether the transformation is worth the
effort, economically feasible, or “real”, however,
may not be easy. Planning and execution of such verifications
require:
• careful definition of verification goals
• consideration of all process inputs and outputs
• design and credible review of a test plan which
will meet verification goals
• attention to process and testing variability
• valid statistical evaluations of the results

Natural
gas dehydration processes have waste or fuel gas streams
which, if recovered, could represent tangible resources.
Their exhaust emissions certainly represent important regulatory
issues as well as significant sources of greenhouse gases.
Engineered Concepts’ “Quantum Leap Technology”
(QLT) design appears to produce a salable product from a
toxic process stream that, at a conventional dehydrator,
would be vented. It also purports to provide significant
natural gas fuel savings and virtually eliminate most toxic
and stack gas emissions. The verification goal, in this
case, was to show if these gains are real.

The
test plan [1] discussed and specified:
• measurements to be taken
• field procedures, such as fluid sampling [2]
• laboratory and other analyses
• data quality determination procedures
It also provided a structure for field testing, site coordination,
assignment of roles and responsibilities, and peer review.

The
implementation of this test plan provided verification data
showing that [3]:
• QLT reduced benzene, ethylene, toluene, xylene,
and n-hexane (BTEX) emissions by 99.74 ? 0.01 percent as
compared to a conventional natural gas dehydrator
• QLT produced 2.88 gph of salable hydrocarbon liquids,
primarily BTEX
• use of the recovered non-condensable hydrocarbon
vapors as fuel avoided the use of natural gas amounting
to approximately 4.16 MMBtu/h, which represents annual savings
if $182,000 per year (gas at $5.00 / MMBtu)

The quantification of these resources is real because the
well-defined, peer-reviewed tests executed by independent
personnel produced results of known accuracy and quality
under real-world field conditions.

Southern
Research Institute in cooperation with the EPA Environmental
Technology Verification (ETV) program conducted all verification
efforts. Southern has found that our verification tests
provide significant credibility because of the rigor of
our technical methods and our independence. Technology designers,
purchasers, financiers, government regulators, and others
value our multifaceted, stakeholder-driven verification
process and our cost-effective approach to difficult field
testing projects.